Medical application of rapid prototyping in orthopedics surgical planning

Abstract

The use of rapid prototyping has become a useful tool to help and support medical activities. It can be used as an auxiliary tool for the diagnosis of certain diseases and the development of complex surgical procedures. The aim of this paper is to show the use of a Rapid Prototype model to help visualize the anatomical structures in an orthopedics case. A virtual 3D model was created from Computer Tomography images using the Invesalius software. After that, a physical model was created using a 3DP machine. The patient and the medical team would discuss this surgical procedure using the images and the biomodel. The main purpose of the prototype model was to introduce the idea of a new educational environment using RP to clarify the complexity of this procedure for both doctors and patient. © 2012 Taylor & Francis Group, London.